St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-05-06

me only explanation OF the ability of finite
and mortal man TO resist God and resist Him
successfully to the end of his life is the fact
That In his will power he Is part of the SOW
erelgn power the omnipotence of God.
Ana when II is opposed TO Gods omnipo-
tence the forces are equal and opposite and
cannot overcome each other. You can set
the force Of your will against the force Of
Coo $ love, and You can overcome God with
lhat part OF his omllipotence that he commit
ted to You. And what fearful thought it is
to feel and know that the greatest gift Of God
which he has given me except his grace
which has appeared to all men in Jesus
Christ the great gift of part of his omnipo-
fence i'll my nature | am using to defeat
Gods purpose. his love, mercy and grace
towards myself. God has To reach out
through yoIir will and in order TO do that he
mas TO reach out through your heart. God
says: my son, give me thine heart" Be-
cause the heart is the
CITADEL OF LIFE.
But the heart follows the will. The heart
cannot control, command the will, but wiler-
ever the will leads there the heart will surely
follow. Why don't God say, "Give me your
mind, your intellect alilh possessions that
you have that are outside of the heart and
its functions" No, God knew that the
heart is the citadel Of life, that out of the
heart are the issues Of life and death, and
knew when man got to the point where he
would decide aud turn over his heart he then
turned over everything to God. Some people
wont have anything to do with religion be-
cause its an intellectual enigma. They can
understand 1t with their minds. If you wait
until you understand it all with your minds,
you wilt be in hell million years before you
get through the first part of learning that les,
son. Ever see specimen OF an Intellectual
religion? When fellow has all his religion
n his head il just swells up his head; he gets
the elephants of the BRAIN He is great big
religious swelhead, and the only vent for il
is i'll wind and gas. Some wan: their religion
III their feet; always going abroad
and speaking the joys OF the Lord. They
I,n;. NJ Il
concentrated in their feet and when they
get it in their feet then they are a bore and
nuisance TO the community, running into ey-
erybody's office and place. Eyerlastingly
gadding-with their TRADES about religion.
And generally when you find one of these
Cid women with her religion in her feet and
her Bible under her arm you can set it down
as fact she has got the worst house full of
children III town, and il is so disagreeabl9
she
CAN'T STAY AT HOME
The gospel of Jesus Christ don't need you
trotting-all over creation with it every day.
Neglecting home and your own children and
the sick in order TO keep up with the well and
big hearty sinners Go com those you
can catch up with easily at the bedside.
Above all get the true religion that is born of
you get ii in your heart you need not be
afraid of where it will go to. 1t will pervade
your whole nature. You get it into your heart
and then il will be injected into the current
"Give me your heart" And the choice you
have got to make yourself. You cannot have
it made for you by proxy; cannot rely on
the goodness of your father or mother, or
grandmother, and the fact that they were
Cody people. / had all those advantages
and the devil had me chained hand and foot
and painted nearly black all over. This is a
decision that yOu have got TO make yourself
Mother may pray for you and God may regard
her prayers; father may use all diligence
and godliness and obedience TO Christ in
order that he may inherit the promise that
the seed of the righteous shall be delivered
from the tolls of the ungodly; God may re-
gard his prayer and the Holy Spirit in answer
to these promises may come out and bring
you to the point of decision, but there you
have got to act for yourself. You can vote
by proxy do great many things in this
world by proxy, but never be religious by
proxy; and you can'tcome and sit around and
wait for religion to strike you like bolt OF
lightning neither. That is a mistaken no.
ton people get sometimes They say / am
going to get religion. Where are you going
to get it? Nobody here that has gotit is 60
got it needs it, and the most of them need
more. And did you ever see religion on
sale? Or did you ever see religion in a shape
where it could be transferred from hand to
hand and
as tangible possession? That is one of the
errors of expression that mislead people
sometimes. You don't get religion, and you
u
if some peculiar pain struck you or sensation
that you could feel or define or locate, it
would probably be the collie or pain of some
kind that you could find; it wouldn't be re-
ligion. Do you know what religion is: Most
of you do And many of you sinners know
what it is, because you are always CRITICS
ing people who profess to have il and
have not. And right there you bankrupt
yourself, old fellow, you know what it is.
Religion is not something that you fet, but
something you do. Not something external,
but something internal which you feel in
every fibre of your nature, every part of your
mental, moral and spiritual system, and work
at religion is love, surrendering to Christ,
keeping his commandments, working humbly
with your God. And every time you can get
a clear,cut definition of religion it is some
thing that you must do. And the first act that
a man has to do is to decide. will be relig-
ious and then follow up that decision.
Matthew was sitting at the seat of customs,
and was a sort of n scallawag: had gone over
to the Romans and taken rather disreput-
able Office, and was despised for it, and all
the Sadduces told Matthew that his
actwas apostacy and there is no hope for you,
and Matthew believed it was true. Matthew
heard Christ talking to the multitude. and
the doctrine Christ preached was so different
from that preached by the learned doctrines
of the Sanhedrum, that Matthew instinct
lively bent his ear and heard what Christ said.
And there grew out of Christ's words an idea
that even he might be saved. And after he
heard him day after day, time after time, he
was afraid to approach him. He said, if that
doctrine is true it would include me and
wont be damned hereafter AS Christ passed
him one day, Matthew looked at him with
such yearning that
CHRIST IN COMPASSION,
as he looked at him said: Follow me-"
There was the critical period in Matthew'S
existence. He was yearniHg and anxious to
be saved Matthew decided what to do in
the twinkling of an eye. He shut up those
tax books and followed out after Christ and
followed after him ever after. He
didn't tumble about in the straw for
half an hour nor whine, but shut
up his books and followed Christ
had friend who had been judge in the
courts of the city of Atlanta for sixteen years.
He got into politics and got to drinking for
two or three years. He ran down. l think
drink was his besetting sin. After was con-
verted we stumped the state together once,
and thought great deal of each other, and
and after 1 was converted, and on these
preaching tours, his wife talked with
me frequently and wanted me to talk
with the judge and get him to give
his heart to God He said WIFE" one time.
when Brother Small is back from this trip
he is on now want to talk seriously 10 him
about religion" The Sunday before got
home he walked up town, and got into the
had been drinking there. He was telling
rough joke TO some men when he suddenly
fell back as if a
BOLT OF LIGHTNING
had struck him from n clear shy, and when
he struck the ground he was dead. At yet l
know at that very time he was III tie valley
of decision. He was considering his life;
very soon decide to give himself to God
But he died in that way A
young lady there in Atlanta went to
a ball, when, dancing with her escort, she
fell on the floor and broke her ankle. Her
ankle was very nearly restored to its usual
strength. She said She thought little ex-
ercise on roller skates would strengthen her
limbs. And her tiance took her,